This may not be a novel idea, but I figured I'd share my project today.

I have been wanting some cargo lighting to check on items in tow ever since riding in a buddy's old body Chevy. He could turn on the rear 3rd brake light cargo lights to check on the side by side on the trailer on the way to the deer lease without the interior lighting coming on like our Fords do. The interior lights coming on makes inspection of items outside the truck rather useless. I also wanted additional bed lighting for late nights wrenching on the truck and picking up after myself when finished.

I was hesitant on this job for the fact I did not want to hack up my dash to install an aftermarket switch. I like a clean, factory-looking dash and a switch in the bed makes cargo inspection while driving obsolete.

Then, I stumbled across Anzo's wireless remote module that eliminates mounting a switch and having to feed wires through the firewall. It allows 4 circuits controlled by a wireless Keychain fob-style remote. Blazer has a similar product with a visor clip style remote similar to a garage door opener or a module controlled by your smart phone, which had less than stellar reviews and deterred me going with that unit. I liked the fob-style so I could also control front bumper auxiliary lighting out of the truck. Seems it'll be handy pointing the truck toward the direction of my deer blind and having some part of the way lighted and being able to turn off the lights remotely when a good distance out. Not sure about the range on this just yet though.

Here's the unit:
https://www.xtremediesel.com/anzo-851067-universal-4-channel-remote-control-module?gclid=CjwKCAiA25v_BRBNEiwAZb4-ZXeoIs4dhU2IUzFgkO1jJ2ege8bS-NP_FTWFdeTgS3_Ie4NToIicIhoCZl4QAvD_BwE

Made in the USA.

Now, the led strip I bought from Amazon for the bed lighting is likely Chinesium goods.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017XFF9IM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_p145FbC0AXX3E

So here's the finished result

I mounted the unit to the fuse box lid under the hood with supplied 3M tape on one side velcro on the other. There are 2 channels wired in here - the bed lights and the front bumper lights. This also works like an aux fuse box to keep the clutter conveniently off the battery terminals when disconnecting or replacing.




And here's the bed lights mounted with 3M double sided tape under the rails. I'm not sure how much of a view of bed cargo I will get from the drivers seat with the lights under the rails. I may not have succeeded in that objective by the preliminary look of it. I am happy with the other objectives I set out to accomplish today but may need to revise or add to the lighting situation another day.

 

Carl,
I really like this idea. I often have a trailer attached at deer camp and it's dark where I park. It would be nice to push a button and turn on a spot light attached to my camper shell. I could also hook up the lights inside the camper shell as I'm vertically challenged and the switch is in the top of the shell which means climbing on the bumper to turn on. One step up isn't that much but I often to hit the aftermarket back up camera with my toe in the dark

 

That's a great solution to a problem, something else to add to the "must have" list.

 

That's really cool! Adding to cart....

 

When we had a topper on our truck towing our travel trailer, I installed push button lights to aid in finding things in the dark. Your idea and method is much better.

Well done sir and thank you for sharing your installation with us.